Laudent Deum: Sacred Music By Orlande De Lassus (2011)

The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge, an exclusive Chandos artist, here presents its third release on the label. Established in the 1670s, the choir has a long and distinguished tradition of performing religious music and here offers distinguished interpretations of sacred works by Orlande de Lassus. Of its most recent release, Hear My Words: Choral Classics from St John’s (CHSA5085), The Telegraph wrote: ‘The boy treble voices bring lustre and freshness to the sonority and the singing throughout is stirring and polished.’

Lassus was a prolific and versatile composer and the most famous musician of his day. By the age of twenty-one, he had been appointed Director of Music at the church of St John Lateran in Rome, an impressive appointment for one so young. More than 2000 works by Lassus survive: Latin settings of masses, canticles, motets, passions, litanies, and hymns, as well as secular pieces in Italian, French, and German.

Lassus was charismatic and gregarious. He was also bipolar, however, a condition that caused him personal unhappiness, but which also accounted for some of the more original and startling passages in his music. The pieces on this recording represent only a small part of his enormous output: nineteen of the 750-odd surviving motets; two of the one hundred Magnificat settings; and three of his dozen purely instrumental works. It is a small sample, but it shows a composer whose formidable technique, kaleidoscopic ear for texture, and matchless word settings made him the darling of the musical High Renaissance in Western Europe.

The majority of Lassus’s motets were settings of religious texts. Ecce nunc benedicite Dominum is one of two seven-voice pieces chosen for this recording, and its rich texture allows Lassus to explore appealing vocal combinations without breaking into double-choir cliché. Veni in hortum meum places the listener in the gently seductive world of the Songs of Songs – that ‘sensuously exciting and baffling’ book of the Bible, to quote the English novelist and poet A.S. Byatt.

The two Magnificat settings on this recording were composed at least twenty years apart. The Magnificat ‘O che vezzosa aurora’ dates from the mid-1580s. A significant proportion of this work is based directly on a six-voice madrigal by the Modenese composer Orazio Vecchi (1550 – 1605), which was published around the same time. Lassus’s own setting, however, is sunny and optimistic in six-voice sections, and respectively robust and reflective in the three- and four-voice sections.

Composer: Orlando de Lassus
Performer: Tim Ravalde, Jonathan Langridge, Leo Tomita, Julian Gregory, …
Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
Orchestra/Ensemble: His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts

Reviews: Lassus composed a great deal, more than 2,000 works by most accounts, of which somewhat more than 750 are motets. Most of these are religious, but sacred or secular, they range across the supplicatory, jubilant, didactic, philosophical, antique, eulogistic, and humorous. He treated the genre much the same way others keep daily journals: to track and focus daily thoughts—though filtered in his case through a musical intelligence of great sensitivity and expressiveness. It is the sacred motets that furnish most of the content on this release, plus two of his roughly 100 Magnificats, and three of his dozen textless bicinia—two-part studies designed for teaching.


Of the 24 items on this recording, fully 15 are premieres. That’s not surprising given the vast number of his surviving compositions, extremely well regarded in his lifetime, then collected and published by his sons after Lassus’s death. What might raise some eyebrows, though, is the quality of each selection. There’s an ecstatically joyous quality about Ecce nunc benedicite Dominum , for instance, that can’t resist breaking into dance rhythms, and a subtle manipulation of seven-part textures that never becomes merely antiphonal. Exaudi, Deus, orationem meam possesses a quiet beauty that at a distance recalls Mundy’s O Lord the Maker of All Things ; while the writing that surrounds the cantus firmus in O peccator, si filium Dei glows, softly but unwaveringly, like the text it expresses.


Not that the previously recorded pieces on this album are to be ignored. We get the very popular Timor et tremor , where the rootlessness of fear is graphically projected in the various ways Lassus displays harmonic instability against a deliberately “solid” six-part, largely homophonic texture. Resonet in laudibus begins with the well-known 14th-century song that became associated in churches with a priest rocking a baby Jesus in a cradle on Christmas Eve, but Lassus’s exultant, wittily cross-metrical treatment would have confounded any attempt at regular rhythmic movement. Leaving aside the lack of secular content (and the elegant bicinia could qualify for that, in a way), this album could hardly be bettered as an introduction to the brilliant and vividly affective art of Lassus.


The Choir of St. John’s College is as often praised as its venue, the St. John’s College Chapel, is criticized. But I think some of the latter is due to the national concern with the Holy Grail of English choirs, a perfectly luminous blend of sound. King’s College is often put forward as the best place to achieve this, but I would suggest that kind of approach isn’t the only or best approach to this music, or all choral music. For one thing, under Andrew Nethsingha and in St. John’s College Chapel, the choir’s blend of voice types—and it is very fine, indeed—finds its balance with a clarity to each part. This isn’t just homophony, after all. Lassus’s discreet use of counterpoint in even his most vertically oriented motets here adds accent, character, and depth to his musical language. It would be nice to have a golden haze surround the opening phrases of Exaudi, Deus, orationem meam , but not at the expense of the well-articulated rhythmic vigor in Jubilate Deo, omnis terra.


For the rest, His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts perform their small contribution very well, while full texts and decent notes are provided. For performers, compositions, and interpretations, then: strongly recommended.

Tracklisting:

1. Ecce nunc benedicite, motet for 7 voices, M. xxi (S. xix/114) by Orlando de Lassus
Performer: Tim Ravalde (Organ)
Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
Orchestra/Ensemble: His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts
Period: Renaissance
Venue: St John's College Chapel, Cambridge, Eng
Length: 2 Minutes 21 Secs.

2. Veni in hortum meum by Orlando de Lassus
Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
Period: Renaissance
Written: by 1562; Munich, Germany
Venue: St John's College Chapel, Cambridge, Eng
Length: 4 Minutes 11 Secs.

3. Quis sequitur me, motet for 2 voices, M. xi (S. i/3) by Orlando de Lassus
Performer: Jonathan Langridge (), Leo Tomita ()
Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
Period: Renaissance
Venue: St John's College Chapel, Cambridge, Eng
Length: 1 Minutes 26 Secs.

4. Resonet in laudibus, motet for 5 voices, M. vii (S. iii/148) by Orlando de Lassus
Performer: Julian Gregory (), Tim Ravalde (Organ), Pablo Strong (),
Tristan Hambleton ()
Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
Orchestra/Ensemble: His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts
Period: Renaissance
Written: by 1569; Munich, Germany
Venue: St John's College Chapel, Cambridge, Eng
Length: 3 Minutes 37 Secs.

5. Omnes de Saba venient, motet for 8 voices, M. xix (S. xxi/1) by Orlando de Lassus
Performer: Tim Ravalde (Organ)
Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
Orchestra/Ensemble: His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts
Period: Renaissance
Written: 16th Century
Venue: St John's College Chapel, Cambridge, Eng
Length: 2 Minutes 38 Secs.

6. Qui moderatur sermons suos, motet for 6 voices, M. xxi (S. xv/142) by Orlando de Lassus
Performer: Tim Ravalde (Organ)
Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
Orchestra/Ensemble: His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts
Period: Renaissance
Venue: St John's College Chapel, Cambridge, Eng
Length: 2 Minutes 3 Secs.

7. Exaudi Deus orationem meam, motet for 4 voices, M. xiv (S. iii/20) by Orlando de Lassus
Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
Period: Renaissance
Venue: St John's College Chapel, Cambridge, Eng
Length: 2 Minutes 12 Secs.

8. Jubilate Deo omnis terra, motet for 4 voices, M. xiv (S. iii/62) by Orlando de Lassus
Performer: Tim Ravalde (Organ)
Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
Orchestra/Ensemble: His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts
Period: Renaissance
Venue: St John's College Chapel, Cambridge, Eng
Length: 1 Minutes 37 Secs.

9. Timor et tremor, motet for 6 voices, M. iii (S. xix/6) by Orlando de Lassus
Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
Period: Renaissance
Written: by 1564; Munich, Germany
Venue: St John's College Chapel, Cambridge, Eng
Length: 5 Minutes 15 Secs.

10. Omnia tempus habent, motet for 8 voices, M. xv (S. xxi/77) by Orlando de Lassus
Performer: Tim Ravalde (Organ)
Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
Orchestra/Ensemble: His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts
Period: Renaissance
Venue: St John's College Chapel, Cambridge, Eng
Length: 4 Minutes 2 Secs.

11. Alleluia laus et Gloria, motet for 4 voices, M. xxi (S. i/68) by Orlando de Lassus
Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
Period: Renaissance
Venue: St John's College Chapel, Cambridge, Eng
Length: 1 Minutes 8 Secs.

12. Quid gloriaris, motet for 5 voices, M. v (S. ix/81) by Orlando de Lassus
Performer: Tim Ravalde (Organ)
Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
Orchestra/Ensemble: His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts
Period: Renaissance
Venue: St John's College Chapel, Cambridge, Eng
Length: 4 Minutes 55 Secs.

13. Laudate pueri Dominum, motet for 7 voices, M. vi (S. xix/94) by Orlando de Lassus
Performer: Tim Ravalde (Organ)
Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
Orchestra/Ensemble: His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts
Period: Renaissance
Venue: St John's College Chapel, Cambridge, Eng
Length: 3 Minutes 48 Secs.

14. O Maria clauses hortus, motet for 3 voices, M. xi (S. i/29) by Orlando de Lassus
Performer: Bradley Smith (), Leo Tomita (), Tristan Hambleton ()
Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
Period: Renaissance
Venue: St John's College Chapel, Cambridge, Eng
Length: 2 Minutes 7 Secs.

15. Laetentur coeli by Orlando de Lassus
Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
Period: Renaissance
Written: by 1569; Munich, Germany
Venue: St John's College Chapel, Cambridge, Eng
Length: 3 Minutes 26 Secs.

16. Laudent Deum cythara, motet for 4 voices, M. xxi (S. iii/58) by Orlando de Lassus
Performer: Tim Ravalde (Organ)
Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
Orchestra/Ensemble: His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts
Period: Renaissance
Venue: St John's College Chapel, Cambridge, Eng
Length: 0 Minutes 42 Secs.

17. O peccator, motet for 6 voices, M. xxi (S. xiii/163) by Orlando de Lassus
Performer: Tim Ravalde (Organ)
Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
Orchestra/Ensemble: His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts
Period: Renaissance
Venue: St John's College Chapel, Cambridge, Eng
Length: 3 Minutes 29 Secs.

18. Fratres qui gloriatur, motet for 6 voices, M. xxi (S. xv/126) by Orlando de Lassus
Performer: Tim Ravalde (Organ)
Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
Orchestra/Ensemble: His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts
Period: Renaissance
Venue: St John's College Chapel, Cambridge, Eng
Length: 2 Minutes 32 Secs.

19. Agimus tibi gratias, motet for 6 voices, M. ix (S. xiii/103) by Orlando de Lassus
Performer: Francis [Tenor Vocal] Williams (), Julian Gregory (), Pablo Strong ()
Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
Period: Renaissance
Venue: St John's College Chapel, Cambridge, Eng
Length: 1 Minutes 18 Secs.

20. O che vezzosa aurora (secondi toni), magnificat for 6 voices, H. xiv/216 by Orlando de Lassus
Performer: Bradley Smith (Cantor), Pablo Strong (), Leo Tomita (),
Tim Ravalde (Organ), Tristan Hambleton ()
Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
Orchestra/Ensemble: His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts
Period: Renaissance
Venue: St John's College Chapel, Cambridge, Eng
Length: 7 Minutes 9 Secs.

21. Textless bicinia: Sine textu 15 by Orlando de Lassus
Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
Orchestra/Ensemble: His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts
Period: Renaissance
Venue: St John's College Chapel, Cambridge, Eng
Length: 1 Minutes 47 Secs.

22. Textless bicinia: Sine textu 19 by Orlando de Lassus
Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
Orchestra/Ensemble: His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts
Period: Renaissance
Venue: St John's College Chapel, Cambridge, Eng
Length: 2 Minutes 6 Secs.

23. Magnificat octo tonorum: Magnificat tertii toni by Orlando de Lassus
Performer: Basil McDonald (Cantor)
Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
Period: Renaissance
Venue: St John's College Chapel, Cambridge, Eng
Length: 4 Minutes 58 Secs.

24. Textless bicinia: Sine textu 13 by Orlando de Lassus
Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
Orchestra/Ensemble: His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts
Period: Renaissance
Venue: St John's College Chapel, Cambridge, Eng
Length: 2 Minutes 2 Secs.




Thanks to the original releaser